For patent geeks: are killer patents an urban legend?

Tell me if you've heard this - supposedly, one of the motivations behind disclosure and utility standards are patents from early in the century from the German chemical industry deliberately written so that, if the methods in the disclosure are followed, the hapless copier would blow herself up! This sort of self-help/IP vigilante-ism is disapproved in polite company ;) But is it true? Christopher Wadlow investigates in the latest issue of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice.